Changing The Stigma // #BlackLivesMatter

Imagine riding in your car down a busy street, just moments after grabbing your daughter from school. Right away, what kinds of things are you thinking about on your way home? Typically what you will be having for dinner will come to mind, or you could be gaining frustration because of the traffic piling up around you. Whatever the case may be, I can almost assure you that you never once thought about being stopped and shot mid traffic, in front of your child nonetheless.

Why would you? Such a thought is barbaric and heartless. So you can imagine my devastation scrolling through my Facebook news feed and literally watching a live stream from beginning to end of an officer taking a life for no reason at all. This life was taken and the officer continued to stand there with his gun pointed at the victim, in case he were to come back from the dead to defend himself I presume. If you have seen the video, I am sure you felt the fear in the officer. I broke down for the mother and daughter that will be scarred with the vision of their father and boyfriend suffering to death in the presence of law enforcement. There is nothing that can be said to fix this situation, but I really tried to come to a place mentally where we could all be productive and move forward.

Since the start of the New Year we have been plagued with a bombardment of negativity in our country. Mass shootings, hate crimes, police brutality, and gun violence have been huge. I racked my brain trying to think of a solution and then all of the sudden it dawned on me. It is not always the case that we as black people do not know how to act. A lot of it has to do with the stigma that surrounds black people on a day to day basis. The implication that we are to be feared because we are different. When I realized this I stopped trying to blame those of us who made mistakes, because one persons decisions should not dictate the way people treat an entire race.

Cops fear black people, just like the human race fears the unknown. They feel powerless unless they are dominating situations pertaining to black people, or black men to be a little more specific. Hence the reason why they are losing their lives at record rates. Black men are being targeted as severely dangerous simply because of the color of their skin.

So to put it plainly, they fear us. That is why they kill us.

Last example.

I watched a video last night that had just surfaced the day before. It was a physical recording of a man getting restrained, arrested, and tazed because the police thought he had a warrant for arrest. Turns out they had the wrong person. But that didn't stop them from going full on cop on black crime. Two of them tackled this man like he was a monster. He begged to be let go, and persisted to tell them a handful of times that he was not who they were looking for, and that his name was Patrick. The man they were looking for was named Michael Clay. This is a typical story for black men. They are targeted because of their skin and because of the stigma.

Black women are even being targeted now.

I mean lets be honest, Sandra Bland got pulled over for switching lanes without a blinker almost a year ago, and her life was lost.

I just wanted to quickly point out a reporter that I particularly despise. You may know her from her host position on the blaze. Tomi Lahren is her name, and I am sure you have seen her obnoxious broadcasts on your Facebook feed just like I have. People like her make me sick. Mostly because she is playing the media like a fiddle. For starters, she takes every brutal murder by the police and tries to justify it by giving the public a breakdown of the criminal history of the person murdered. I am not saying that those now deceased did not take part in criminal activity. However I am saying that in the circumstances they found themselves in before they lost their lives, they were 8X out of 10 racially targeted. Anyone who does not see this as the reality clearly hasn't been paying close enough attention.

She also had the nerve to bash Jesse Williams for the powerful speech he gave when he received Humanitarian of the year from BET. In so many words she painted a picture of Jesse making it seem as if his motive was to fuel a war between black and white. Anyone with enough ignorance would see this concoction as a liable alternative. However anyone with common sense could see and believe the truth in his words. I wont break down the entire speech because I think each and every one of us should read it for ourselves. But I will point out my favorite part of the speech, while placing an unflattering photo of Tomi in refute...

For those who lost their lives because of these recent injustices, I can only hope and pray that in time their deaths are taken as pivotal steps in OUR race for equality. And for those of us who still have our lives, I really want you to question your role in society. I want to you focus on being more aware, and active on the scene of equality. Try to be the change.